The OBC is an optional extra for several models, though as it's included in other models or option packs, many owners assume it's standard.
If your car does not have it, and you particularly want it, retrofitting it (that is, switching it on, since everything it needs is already there) is a listed official extra which a Mini dealer can provide. In Britain it's about $150, so that is a test of how much you really want it...
When I first got my '03 R50 and found the OBC, I just poked it one time and it illustrated just what was said above. I thought that that was odd but did nothing about it until I was waiting for my wife and was fiddling around with the button. I started poking it again and again, and, sure enough, each poke yielded a different reading. How cool, I thought, and still do. My 2 '06 R53s have it, as well, so I always thought it was a standard item on the Stateside MINIs.
My wife's 08 clubman has it. Sorry for the confusion I may have caused. You may get the dealer to switch it on. My 06 did not have it, but the dealer switched it on for me.
If you tell us where you are we may be able to direct you to a MINI garage who can code your MINI the way you'd like. I used Helix in Philly to do ours. I had him do it while both of us were down at the dragon.
Many thanks to all concerned. I might call into the local (25miles) dealer and see what they say. I've been looking deeper into this (to begin with I thought it was just a setting that I had wrong but now realise that having an OBC is not a given) and I read somewhere that some one had looked up on a website and found what their Mini had fitted from new. Is this available in this country?
Go to BMW Model Archive · February 2015 · bmwarchive.org. Use their vin number decoder, and you will find a history of your MINI. Build date, colour, etc, and the options fitted. If you find option S550A, you have an OBC.
